Weekly Rundown- At Least There’s Still Football
Sigh! After such a fun and exciting week last week, this one felt a little blah. It wasn’t bad, but trail adventures and travels were replaced with things like trips to the dentist and extra hours at work. Oh well- football playoffs are keeping the excitement alive, for now. Thanks as always to Kim and Deborah for hosting the Weekly Rundown. Let’s get into it! Monday My son went back to school, which is always hard for me. Adding insult to injury, he left for the airport at 5 am. Luckily my husband LOVES going to the airport and will always drive people there and pick them up if he possibly can- so after saying goodbye, I went back to bed and slept for two more hours before getting ready for work. This meant I had to run later in the afternoon, but that’s okay- our cool and beautiful weather continued and this 4 mile run felt pretty good. Tuesday Gym day! I get done with work at 2 pm on Tuesdays, so I have time to go to the gym before going to pick up my daughter. It’s pretty funny how many ways I’ll try to convince myself not to go, though. I’m feeling tired- maybe I should go home and take a nap instead! (Ha- nice try.) Maybe I could go a different day… Friday? (No, you’re going today. Shut up.). It’s really hard to work out later in the day- but somehow I did it. It was leg day, which was grueling while I was there. But I felt great afterwards. Wednesday I started the day with a 4 mile run… and then took my daughter to school, went to the dentist, did my shopping, all the while arguing with myself, because it was push/pull day at the gym. Once again I didn’t want to go, but if I’m going to go to the gym, it really has to be Tuesdays and Wednesdays. Once I convinced myself to go and finished the workout, again I felt amazing. I just don’t have the equipment at home to work out as hard as I do at the gym. Hopefully next week I’ll remember this and won’t have to go through the mental gymnastics to get myself there! Thursday Caroline Girvan and I have some unfinished business, because I never finished her Iron Series. I had three workouts left, and I figured today was the perfect day to knock out Day #28, glutes. I HATE her glutes workouts- so many hip thrusts. But I can cross that one off- hooray. Friday After all that strength work, I did a 4 mile run that felt like a vacation. Saturday Day off! I worked in the morning and then settled down happily to watch football. I wish the Dolphins were still in it, but it’s also fun to watch when I don’t have a strong preference, and can just enjoy- hopefully- a close, exciting game. Sunday On tap- 16 mile trail run. My long runs are getting to the point where the distance is slightly scary. AND, after all our cool weather, the temperature and humidity are spiking up- by the end of this run it will be almost 80 degrees. (Seriously? Wasn’t it in the 40s last weekend???) Good thing I have my double bottle hydration vest. Do you prefer to work out first thing in the morning? If you do it later in the day, is it hard to convince yourself to do it? Are you watching football today? (Go Bengals!)
Vegans- Where DO You Get Your Protein?
I’ve been vegan for over 30 years, and during that time have rarely thought about protein. It’s not a topic that ever concerned me- although other people seem VERY concerned FOR me. Whenever I-or any other vegan in the world- tell someone I’m vegan, they inevitably ask “But where do you get your protein?” Ah, we vegans chuckle and roll our eyes gently. Protein is in everything! Broccoli has protein! Fruit has protein! Not to mention rice, beans, tofu, peanut butter…. and, well, everything. Have you ever met anyone who had a protein deficiency? It’s almost impossible to do. No need to worry about protein. When I was pregnant with my son, my midwife asked me to write down everything I ate for a week, just to make sure I was getting enough. I didn’t change anything, wrote down exactly what I ate, and my protein intake was well within the recommended amount. I grew an entire new person with the protein I ate normally- TWICE! That was proof that this whole “protein obsession” was silly. Then, two things happened. I got older, and got lazy about my diet. Unlike my pregnancy days, where I ate plenty of healthy food, in recent years I’ve gotten in the habit of skipping lunch when I’m too busy. Guess what- if you skip a meal, you just got 0 grams of protein. Sometimes I would eat a handful of pretzels instead of lunch, which gave me a whopping 3 grams of protein. Here’s an interesting fact- pregnant women are advised to eat .8 grams of protein per kilogram of their body weight daily. Post-menopausal women are advised to eat 1-1.2 grams of protein per kilogram of body weight. Post-menopausal women need MORE PROTEIN than pregnant women? Apparently, yes. My son- who’s also vegan and recently started working out- has become very aware of how much protein he’s eating, and he advised me to do the same. It turns out that I was nowhere near the recommended amount, especially since I’m lifting weights and trying to increase my muscle mass. Since my word for 2023 is “Nourish” I decided to make sure I’m nourishing my body with enough protein. It really isn’t hard- it just took some awareness and a few tweaks to my diet. First of all, I got a protein powder (pea and rice protein) and will make myself a quick protein shake if I don’t have time to eat right after a workout. I don’t think anyone should rely too heavily on protein powders, but it’s a great supplement if you’re trying to bulk up your intake. Then, my meals. I now aim for around 25 grams of protein per meal (plus a snack.) If I’m having oatmeal, sometimes I’ll add a scoop of protein powder, or I’ll make it with soymilk instead of water, and/or I’ll add nuts or peanut butter. For lunch, I make sure I have SOMETHING. If I’m really too busy to eat at work, I’ll have a bar to tide me over. I had been eating a plant-based keto bar (I’m not keto but I don’t eat sugar, and regular bars can be very sugar-y) and I discovered it only had 5 grams of protein! I now pay 50 cents more per bar to get one that has 20 grams of protein. One of my favorite “lazy” dinners is chickpea pasta with broccoli and marinara sauce. Let’s see…. the pasta has 12 grams of protein. The sauce has 3 grams and the broccoli has another 3. That’s not terrible, but now I add some frozen peas while the pasta is cooking and sprinkle nutritional yeast over the top, giving myself a good 25 grams of protein. Other little changes were easy to make- soymilk has more protein than oatmilk. Peanut butter has more protein than almond butter. If I’m making a stir fry I can add chickpeas AND tofu (when in doubt, add tofu, is my new motto.). As I said, it isn’t hard to get enough protein if you just make a little effort. Since this is new for me, I can’t show any results yet. But I feel good, and I’ve also cut down on junk food snacking. I mean, I’ll have pretzels if I want them (because pretzels are salty and delicious!) but now that I’m aware of how little they’re nourishing me, I don’t want them as often. Part 1 of the Nourish Project is going well- next up, sleep. This one could be tricky. Do you track your protein intake or think about macros? Do you notice a difference in how you feel if you eat more or less protein?
Weekly Rundown- Not Like Other Weeks
Well, it was quite a week! We had a trip to Tampa, I had an amazing trail adventure, and we ran a race! Thanks as always to Kim and Deborah for hosting the Weekly Rundown. Let’s get right into it. Sunday 15 mile run! Sometimes when I set off for a long run I’ll say “I’m going to do X-ish miles, depending on how I feel.” I’m really glad I didn’t say that this time, because I didn’t feel great at any point during this run. Nothing hurt (other than my hamstring, which is always a 2 or 3 on a pain scale of 1-10) but it just… wasn’t great. But I did it! It was partially on a cross country trail and partially on pavement. Monday I did Day 1 of Caroline Girvan’s “Tempo Week” workouts, which was chest, shoulders and triceps. Because I knew I would only get to the gym once this week, I considered this my “push” day. Tuesday 4 mile run in the morning… …and then in the afternoon I went to the gym. Words can’t really express how much I DIDN’T want to go to the gym- my upper body was sore from the Caroline Girvan workout, my quads were sore from the run on Sunday, and I was just tired overall. If there had been any alternative I would have taken it, but this was my only day. So I went. I did a combination “pull” and leg day. It wasn’t the best workout I’ve ever had, but it was good- as always, I was glad I went. Wednesday A quick 3 mile run… and then we blasted off to Tampa! Woohoo! Thursday No workouts, other than walking all over downtown Tampa and supervising three 14-year-olds. We were there for the FMEA (Florida Music Educators Association) All-State convention- my daughter and two of her friends played in the middle school band. They had rehearsals and we also went to the exhibition hall where they could try different instruments, get information about summer camps and colleges, and of course, purchase merch. One of my favorite moments was when we looked at the 2023 All-State hoodies- the names of all the kids who participated were listed on the back. The kids were so thrilled to see their names on a hoodie! My daughter asked “Is $58 too much for a hoodie?” No, not in this case. Friday After doing MAJOR kid duty on Thursday, I handed those responsibilities over to my husband for the day. I dropped my daughter at her rehearsal and drove about 30 minutes out of town to an incredible trail. It was huge and beautiful. There was a main trail and lots of colorfully-named offshoots. I quickly realized that the main trail was very runnable while the offshoots were more technical and often had standing water. I stayed on the main trail for the most part but couldn’t resist taking this detour: and also I ran on “Hogwild” because… well, how could you not? These trails are used by runners and hikers, but are also for mountain bikers. The last offshoot I tried was “Techno Pig” which was a mistake! It had roots, rocks, and was very twisty. Other than that I would say these trails were 95% runnable. I absolutely loved this run- 10 miles in the most perfect weather you could hope for. I want to come back and run more sections of this trail. Afterwards, I went back to our hotel and TOOK A BATH. I haven’t taken a bath in… 5 years? 10 years? Long, luxurious baths just don’t fit in with my lifestyle, so this was a huge, huge treat. And then I took a nap. This day is in contention for the Best Day Ever. Saturday My husband and I had signed up for the inaugural FMEA 3K run, which started at 6 am. Late on Friday a cold front blew through, and we knew it was going to be in the low 40s, and windy. My husband said “Do we have to do it?” My son’s response was “What would David Goggins say?” In addition to the “Florida cold” temperatures and wind, it was lightly raining. But as always, this race was FUN! I’ve decided the 3K is my new favorite distance. Or maybe from now on I’ll just do 50Ks and 3Ks, ha ha. You know how that last mile of the 5K can be so painful? Just lop off those extra 2Ks! It felt good to run fast, although I use that word loosely. But it was fast compared to the trail running I did the day before. My daughter’s concert was at night, and we drove home afterwards. It’s a four hour drive so we got home very late! Sunday On tap for today… sleeping in, tea, waffles, Dolphins game. Getting my son ready to leave and bracing myself to say goodbye- he goes back to school tomorrow. It was an amazing week. I loved being in a different city, with different weather and different people. (We did miss our cats though.) This next week will feel very dull- but at least I’ll be able to finish getting the Christmas decorations put away. Have you ever run a 3K race? Have you ever been to Tampa? – It’s a beautiful city!
An Introvert in Tampa
Here we are in sunny, beautiful Tampa! We love the view from our hotel room: and here’s the walk from our hotel to the convention center: We couldn’t have asked for better weather. We woke up to 52 degrees and the temperature reached 76 by the afternoon. And sunny, sunny, sunny. My favorite kind of Florida day! The reason for our visit is the FMEA (Florida Music Educators Association) Conference, which is professional development for music educators and All-State ensemble concerts for students. My husband attends every year as a music educator, and my son went to All-State five years in a row as a student (although his senior year ended up being virtual due to Covid.) This year, my daughter made the middle school All-State band and our entire family is attending together for the first time. This morning the students had chair placement auditions, and then were free until their afternoon rehearsal. I hung out to supervise my daughter and two of her friends and then took them to lunch. The auditions were crowded and chaotic…. the restaurant was a mob scene…. and tonight we’re meeting friends for dinner. With four free hours in the afternoon, my son asked if I wanted to come to the exhibition hall with him. Um… no, thanks. I realized that if I want to be able to carry on a coherent conversation at dinner tonight, I need time to myself to recharge. Instead of seeing the sights of Tampa, attending the conference or sitting in on rehearsals, I’m sitting at…. a Starbucks. Some people might say “but you could go to a Starbucks at home!” Yes, but my Starbucks at home doesn’t have this view from the window. (Random side note- my only complaint is that this Starbucks is playing CHRISTMAS MUSIC. Don’t they know that it’s officially over? I’ve moved on and they should too.) Seriously, this is exactly what I want to be doing right now. And tomorrow I have an exciting trail run planned. My biggest fear is that I’ll mention it to someone and they’ll want to come with me. WHAT IS WRONG WITH ME? All I want is to be running on a trail by myself. It’s hard to be an introvert. I really have to gear myself up for social situations, and get overwhelmed quickly. But I think life can be hard for extreme extroverts as well. My daughter is an extrovert, and she gets very, very bored if she’s alone. She’ll choose any type of activity with any group of people at any time, rather than be home alone. I imagine as she gets older she’ll have to find some balance, although as an introvert I don’t really know what that will mean for her. My son considers himself and ambivert. Lucky him! He enjoys being around people and making new friends but also loves being at home. It’s funny how people in the same family who presumably share genes can be so different. How about you- are you and introvert or extrovert? Are you extreme in either direction? Is it hard to coordinate with family members who have a different tendency than you? Okay, I’m off to meet our friends for dinner. I think I’m ready!